The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Last week was certainly one of the landmark weeks in our profession. Between the exciting research conference put on by the Massage Therapy Foundation in Seattle and the release of the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge, it’s enough to make your head spin.  After a 16-year effort, Wisconsin massage therapists just got a practice act. It would just be great if everything was such good news all the time.

New Hampshire is on the radar as the first state to simultaneously license the practice of reflexology, structural integration, and Asian bodywork modalities. There are probably an equal number of people applauding that move and looking at it as a burden on practitioners.

Unfortunately, as Massage Today editor Christie Bondurant reported a few days ago, everything is not progress. In CA, massage therapy is under siege with AB 1822, which threatens to wipe out the efforts of the CAMTC in moving massage forward in that state. I’ve been reporting on that myself recently in several other venues. Massage Today has provided an e-mail form to tell the California Assembly Appropriations Committee to vote NO on AB 1822:  http://www.massagetoday.com/bill1822/stop_ab1822.php.

Then we’ve got the zoning fiasco that’s still going on in Chicago, where a misguided politician believes that banishing massage therapists to areas where only heavy industry and taverns are allowed to exist is the way to control prostitution.

It often seems like we make two steps forward and two steps back.

Our professional organizations carry the load when it comes to tracking legislation, and doing anything about it when something that’s discriminatory or detrimental to us is coming down the pike, and while I applaud them for doing so, I don’t think that excuses me as an individual for standing up for my own rights and those of massage therapists everywhere.

One lobbyist, or one government relations representative, can protest unfair legislation til the cows come home. I don’t think that has near as much impact as it would if 100, or 1000, massage therapists banded together and showed up at a city council meeting or a session of the legislature where the laws that affect us are being decided.

Haven’t we had enough years of the old massage parlor mentality? Haven’t we had enough years of being treated like we’re all prostitutes, and not being taken seriously as a member of the health care team? I think we have. That’s why I keep harping on this subject. It’s been gratifying to me in the past few weeks that I’ve received some comments from therapists saying that they are glad I jolted them into taking some kind of action. I wish the rest would follow suit.

When massage comes under fire in any place, it comes under fire in all. Dangerous precedents are set that don’t serve any purpose except to set us back when we ought to be moving forward.

I don’t see myself as just one massage therapist. I see myself as one member of the family of hands. When my family is in trouble, I like to go to the rescue. Maybe all I can do is write a letter, call a legislator, or show up at a town council meeting, but at least I won’t have any regrets that I didn’t do anything while my rights and those of my fellow therapists were on the line.

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen